February 13, 2008

Ha'aretz: A major component of America's Israel lobby is starting to worry about what Barack Obama might mean when he speaks of "change". Now I thought it was the obligatory vaccuous nonsense that all US presidential hopefuls spout at election time but the head of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Malcolm Hoenlein, is a worried man

."All the talk about change, but without defining what that change should be is an opening for all kind of mischief," Hoenlein said at a press conference in Jerusalem. Obama has made change a central theme in his campaign.

Central theme? He certainly uses the word "change" ever such a lot but he has said nothing else to suggest that he actually means anything other than a change of window dressing.

But with or without an Obama presidency Honlein indicated that change is happening anyway and see this for the breathtaking arrogance of the man:

Hoenlein said that Israel's supporters should be worried by "the heightening of the bar and the greater tolerance of anti-Israel statements that wouldn't have been allowed in the past."

He singled out the Walt-Mearschimer book on the Israel lobby, that "has become a bestseller and a college textbook" and said that there "is a steady poisoning of the elites, mainly on campuses that could trickle down."

Wouldn't have been allowed in the past? Who wouldn't have allowed it and who has allowed it now?